Category Archives: Hops

As we know brewing is a fantastic industry with great people, art, science, creativity and flavour! Additions towards the end of the boil can include; flavoursome late hops, the all-important Protafloc, yeast nutrients and a wide range of sugars spices and speciality ingredients.

However, with any process involving vast quantities of boiling sugary liquid there are risks and it is worth taking some time to give some tips from our team’s collective experiences to make kettle additions as safe as possible.

There are a vast array of brew-kettle designs out there, so this is not an exhaustive list, but it should cover some of the keys points should you have to make additions through the manway door. Feel free to post any further insights you feel are valid.

Make sure the heat source isoff! This seems like an obvious one but with the hectic brewing schedules and multi-tasking that can go on in a brewery it is easily done on manual kits with no lock out protection.

Linked to the one above, ensure that leaks or faulty valves do not make you think you have turned off the heat source when you haven’t.

Staff Training, structured procedures, working instructions and relevant safety equipment. This not only helps protect the people in the brewery but also the business if an accident were to happen.

Clean chimney flue, free of blockages!

If possible mixing/agitation to prevent “heat pockets” these can be disturbed by the additions, leading to a boil over.

Regular cleaning of the element: This should prevent uneven heating which can produce boil over issues, alongside which it’ll also save you a bit of money through greater energy efficiency and have wort beer quality benefits.

Antifoam: As the name suggests using this will reduce the likelihood of bubbles forming leading to extra capacity, better hop utilisation, easier cleaning and counter intuitively better final beer foam as foam positive proteins are not wasted upstream in the process. This should not be relied upon by itself as a safety measure as the safety benefits are offset by the use of the extra capacity.

Sacrificial/test additions: A small amount say 10% of the total additions can be added to reduce the severity of nucleation affects. The rest can be even added in small stages if required.

Having an escape route! If a boil over was to happen, keeping access free and visible so that everyone can get out of the way.

Sharing information and best practise with other brewers. Learning from mistakes is very powerful and being open and honest about accidents & near misses may very well help protect a brewer in the future

Author: Adam Johnson

Headline image courtesy of the Younger Members Network – Institute of Brewing and Distilling.

When some very enterprising German brewers decided to store their beer in the frozen Bavarian Alps through the summer time in the early nineteenth century, little did they know of the impact there new “Lager” creation would have on the world of beer. Some of these brewers were so moved by the potential of this wonderous brew that they started to leave their Bavarian breweries to spread the word around Europe and refine this new brewing art. Many on the continent were so moved by the potential of Lager and the Lagering technique that many brewing enterprises started making related products of their own giving rise to styles like the Red Lagers of Vienna. Much credit also needs to be given to Bavarian brewer Josef Groll who, in 1842, took the brave step of heading to a little-known brewing town called Pilsen in the Czech Republic to try out his new lager recipe. Following on from this original Pilsner (Pilsner Urquell), innovations and developments in the likes of glass bottle manufacture and refrigeration coupled with a good helping of migration meant lager quickly became a worldwide success.

Lager is as popular as ever and whether its Pilsner, Helles, Vienna Lager or Schwarzbier you are considering brewing, Murphy and Son is the place for everything you need for a flavoursome quality lager.

Our much treasured, annual free of charge liquor analysis now includes a suggested liquor treatment for lager style beers as standard. If you have not had you liquor checked for a while and you are a Murphys customer please send 50ml of untreated water to our lab for us to check out for you.

Our suggested lager treatment aims for a brewing liquor with adequate calcium for good brewing enzyme activity, yeast flocculation and oxalate and protein precipitation whilst mimicking the low sulphate and chloride levels of Munich and Pilsen for a crisp, light flavour. This is best achieved with suitable additions of lactic acid to reduce alkalinity with low levels of calcium sulphate and calcium chloride to increase calcium ions.

Our new closer ties with Simpsons Malt means that we now have in stock ready for dispatch Finest Lager Malt (crushed). This highest quality malt is slightly higher in Total Nitrogen and slightly under-modified so head / foam and mouthfeel will survive the lagering process. To add to this quality base malt, we can also supply a range of crystal malts, caramalt, wheat malt and Vienna malt (all crushed) direct from our warehouse.

Whether you are looking for traditional varieties of Noble Czech Saaz and German Hallertau hops, or looking to add a dry hop twist to your brew with new world hop pellets, we are very proud of our close relationship with Charles Faram which means we can supply the best hops around to suit your requirements.

On the dried yeast front we are pleased to hold stock of Lallemand Diamond Lager Yeast and three different Fermentis Lager Yeasts. We also supply wet yeast cultures from the National Collection of Yeast Cultures (NCYC) which houses a vast range of lager strains originating from all over the world which can add the precise character you are looking for.

Flavour control

Diacetyl and Sulphur flavours can be problematic in lagers to help keep things under control we have the perfect products to help.

When added to wort at the start of fermentation, the enzyme Alpha Acetolactate Decarboxylate (ALDC) acts on the diacetyl precursor alpha acetolactate converting it to acetoin. If alpha acetolactate is not present diacetyl can’t be formed so no buttery off flavours in your beer and conditioning time can be reduced.

To help keep sulphur off flavours out of your beer, Murphys have developed two zetolite products for the job. Zetolite 65, when added to wort at the start of fermentation will prevent the formation of sulphur off flavours whilst if you notice the undesirable sulphurous aromas in your fermented product, the addition of Zetolite 63 will stimulate your yeast to reduce H2S and DMS aromas during maturation.

Don’t forget…

…an exuberant bright appearance is important with lagers and at Murphys we carry a huge range of finings and stabilisers to help achieve the desirable crisp look from brewers clarex to Super F, Silica and PVPP products, the Murphys Technical team is on hand to get this just right for you. PGA is also a handy product to help achieve a perfect looking head on dispense.

For further information on any of the products discussed or for general advice and trouble-shooting with lager brewing please contact the Murphys Technical Team.